Many of the events in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens have been recreated and represented in other works of literature, film, TV, etc.
Five Kinds of Silence
Jerry Cruncher's attitude and personality towards his family parallels the lifestyle of the abusive father Billy in "Five Kinds of Silence" by Shelagh Stephenson. Cruncher is always "growling" (42) at his family and abuses his wife. He is always yelling at her for nonsense and destroys her freedom. Similarly, Billy abuses his family severely. He completely isolates his family from the outside world and tortures them into doing what he says. Cruncher and Billy are closely paralleled in their personalities.
Lost "Coincidentally" an episode of the popular TV show, Lost, is named after Charles Dickens's book! How neat is that! This episode also parallels the story of A Tale of Two Cities! It's like Dickens himself wrote it! In the episode, the Others from the Dharma camp on the island are seen peacefully holding a book club meeting. Suddenly their meeting is interrupted by the crashing Oceanic flight. If we look at this scene through a Dickens lense, then one can obviously see that the writers of Lost are representing the opening scene of the novel. The Dharma camp is representing England in this case and the crashing plane along with its passengers are the people of France. After the flight crashes, two spies from the Dharma camp are sent to the crash sight (France) to keep an eye on them. These two spies can also represent Roger Cly and John Barsad from Dickens's novel. Also contained in this episode, the unfair social class system is represented. The Others are much like the Marquis and the French nobility in that they treat the lower class (the crashed passengers of the Oceanic flight) like animals and aliens. The Others (the Marquis) puts the lower class in cages usually used to house bears. The Marquis also treated the lower class in much the same way in A Tale of Two Cities if you have forgotten. If it is not transparent yet that this episode was written with A Tale of Two Cities on the writers' minds, then something is wrong with you. Clearly the writers of Lost were throwing elements of Dickens's novel into their TV series. Thank you writers of Lost and may you be blessed for the rest of your days!
Lost is the Professor's favorite TV show, so he dedicated a whole page of his website to this particular episode just for you! Maybe some of you should show this much dedication in your English class!
A Good Man Is Hard To FindMadame Defarge's attitude and self centered attitude in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is recreated in the Grandmother in the short story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" by Flannery O'Connor. Throughout "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", the Grandmother represents everything nefarious in the story, and she is extremely self-centered. Her only concern is for herself which is similar to Madame Defarge's personality. Madame Defarge's mindset is getting revenge for herself. She does support the Revolution, but she supports it for different deeper reasons than everyone else. Her goal for the Revolution is to get back at the nobles for what they did to her family. All of this hate and self-centeredness leads to Madame Defarge's demise, and the same punishment falls upon the Grandmother in O'Connor's short story. The Grandmother is killed by the Misfit in the end of the short story; moreover, her death is a parallel to why Madame Defarge met her demise. The Grandmother in "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" represents the character of Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities in the sense that they both meet their death due to their hatred and blood-lust. Other Works that Allude to A Tale of Two Cities
Many of the events in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens have been recreated and represented in other works of literature, film, TV, etc.
Five Kinds of Silence
Jerry Cruncher's attitude and personality towards his family parallels the lifestyle of the abusive father Billy in "Five Kinds of Silence" by Shelagh Stephenson. Cruncher is always "growling" (42) at his family and abuses his wife. He is always yelling at her for nonsense and destroys her freedom. Similarly, Billy abuses his family severely. He completely isolates his family from the outside world and tortures them into doing what he says. Cruncher and Billy are closely paralleled in their personalities.
Lost
"Coincidentally" an episode of the popular TV show, Lost, is named after Charles Dickens's book! How neat is that! This episode also parallels the story of A Tale of Two Cities! It's like Dickens himself wrote it!
In the episode, the Others from the Dharma camp on the island are seen peacefully holding a book club meeting. Suddenly their meeting is interrupted by the crashing Oceanic flight. If we look at this scene through a Dickens lense, then one can obviously see that the writers of Lost are representing the opening scene of the novel. The Dharma camp is representing England in this case and the crashing plane along with its passengers are the people of France. After the flight crashes, two spies from the Dharma camp are sent to the crash sight (France) to keep an eye on them. These two spies can also represent Roger Cly and John Barsad from Dickens's novel.
Also contained in this episode, the unfair social class system is represented. The Others are much like the Marquis and the French nobility in that they treat the lower class (the crashed passengers of the Oceanic flight) like animals and aliens. The Others (the Marquis) puts the lower class in cages usually used to house bears. The Marquis also treated the lower class in much the same way in A Tale of Two Cities if you have forgotten.
If it is not transparent yet that this episode was written with A Tale of Two Cities on the writers' minds, then something is wrong with you. Clearly the writers of Lost were throwing elements of Dickens's novel into their TV series. Thank you writers of Lost and may you be blessed for the rest of your days!
A Good Man Is Hard To FindMadame Defarge's attitude and self centered attitude in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is recreated in the Grandmother in the short story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" by Flannery O'Connor. Throughout "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", the Grandmother represents everything nefarious in the story, and she is extremely self-centered. Her only concern is for herself which is similar to Madame Defarge's personality. Madame Defarge's mindset is getting revenge for herself. She does support the Revolution, but she supports it for different deeper reasons than everyone else. Her goal for the Revolution is to get back at the nobles for what they did to her family. All of this hate and self-centeredness leads to Madame Defarge's demise, and the same punishment falls upon the Grandmother in O'Connor's short story. The Grandmother is killed by the Misfit in the end of the short story; moreover, her death is a parallel to why Madame Defarge met her demise. The Grandmother in "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" represents the character of Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities in the sense that they both meet their death due to their hatred and blood-lust.
Other Works that Allude to A Tale of Two Cities